Disabling System Restore

To keep users from changing the System Restore settings, you can use Group Policy Editor (GPE) or a registry editor to disable the utility's UI while keeping the service running. To use Group Policy to disable the UI, start GPE and click Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System, System Restore. Double-click Turn off System Restore and, on the Setting tab, select Disable. Double-click Turn off Configuration and, on the Setting tab, select Enable. Click Apply, then click OK. The System Restore tab in the Systems Properties dialog box will no longer appear.

To use a registry editor to disable the System Restore UI, launch regedit and open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT subkey. Create a new subkey named SystemRestore, and create a new DWORD value. Double-click the new value, name it DisableConfig, and assign it a data type value of 1. Click OK.